Tuesday, 8 March 2022

Adjournment

Ms TIERNEY (Western Victoria—Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education) (19:26): I move:

That the house do now adjourn.

Firewood collection

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (19:26): (1783) My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. The action that I seek is for the minister to immediately reverse planned changes to firewood collection rules that would prevent Moira shire residents from collecting firewood from some of the designated firewood collection areas in selected Victorian state forests.

The Andrews Labor government’s ban on firewood collection in the Barmah National Park last year severely impacted residents of the Moira local government area. Many residents throughout the Barmah region do not have access to a natural gas supply and have historically relied on wood collection as an energy source to heat their homes and cook their meals. The ban forced Barmah locals to travel to the closest firewood collection point at Alfs Dam, south of Rushworth, a round trip of just under 3 hours to obtain wood. My office was inundated with complaints from Moira shire residents regarding the ban, and I raised my concerns with the minister in March, seeking that a firewood collection area be established in the Barmah area. Unfortunately the minister failed to act.

As if the minister’s decision last year to implement this ban was not bad enough, the new firewood collection rules that came into force on 1 March are disgraceful, and they will make this bad situation even worse. As of 1 March only residents from specific local government areas will be able to collect firewood from the collection points in state forests within central Victoria. The collection of firewood from these points is restricted to residents from the shires of Buloke, Campaspe, Central Goldfields, Gannawarra, Greater Bendigo, Greater Shepparton, Hepburn, Loddon, Macedon Ranges, Mitchell, Mt Alexander, Northern Grampians, Pyrenees and Strathbogie. Inexplicably Moira shire has been omitted from the authorised LGAs, meaning residents from towns such as Barmah will be unable to collect firewood from their closest point at Alfs Dam. This omission simply does not make any sense and is blatantly unfair considering the lack of access to conventional energy sources such as natural gas throughout the Moira shire. The updated fire collection map published on 1 March shows that the closest firewood collection point for Moira shire residents is at Swanpool, a nearly 3½-hour round trip from the Barmah township. This is completely unacceptable.